First Corinthians 14 goes on to say that when the whole church comes together and all prophesy, a new one will be convicted by all and judged by all, having the secrets of his heart exposed (vv. 23-25). The first convicting and judging one in the New Testament was John the Baptist. This one who was apart from culture and religion, wearing camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey, and working wildly, called people to repent. His convicting and his judging led people to Christ. John the Baptist told people that they had to go to Christ as the One who was stronger than he was. Convicting and judging always lead people to Christ. When we get convicted and judged, we would say, “Lord Jesus, forgive me.” We may even say this with tears. Paul says that to prophesy is to convict people and to judge people. He means that this is the way to bring people to Christ and to lead people to receive Christ, to take Christ. Therefore, what Paul is saying is that to prophesy is to speak Christ.
First Corinthians 14:23-25 says, “If therefore the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak in tongues, and the unlearned or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are insane? But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all, he is judged by all; the secrets of his heart become manifest; and so falling on his face, he will worship God, reporting that God is really among you.” “Insane” means mad or even raving mad. This word is a strong discouragement to the excessive practice of speaking in tongues. Paul says, however, that if all prophesy, something marvelous happens. Prophesying is not prediction but the speaking of God. Such speaking convicts and judges people, exposing the secrets of people’s hearts. It is not so easy for people to be convicted. All of us like to justify and vindicate ourselves. However, when all the saints prophesy, speak for the Lord, the unbelievers and unlearned persons are convicted and judged by all. They will be amazed at our speaking that exposes their real situation and the secrets of their hearts.
I can still remember the time when I preached in a large gospel meeting in January of 1942. I spoke something in the meeting that exposed the real situation of a certain lady. She was upset with the sister who brought her to the meeting, thinking that this sister had told me about her. The sister told her that she had not told me anything about her. She told this lady that this showed that our God, our Jesus Christ, is living and that He spoke an intimate word to her. The sister told her that this was the Lord’s speaking to her. This word inspired that lady, and soon afterwards she believed in the Lord and was baptized. Things like this happen when we prophesy. Our speaking of Christ exposes the secrets of people’s hearts, and they are turned to the Lord.
When the whole church comes together and each one prophesies, the new ones, either non-Christians or believers, will be convicted and judged. This is quite meaningful. Whenever we have a Christian meeting, God speaks through the saints in that meeting. He does not merely speak through some gifted persons who become a clerical class. According to Paul’s thought in 1 Corinthians 14, all the attendants prophesy, not just a clerical class. When all prophesy, and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all. Any church meeting should be convicting through the speaking of the saints, through the prophesying of the saints. Because this is what the Bible says, we have to bow our heads and say, “Amen, Lord. We like to see that whenever we come together as the church, You would speak through us.” Also, we should pray, “Lord, whenever the church comes together, speak through me.”
According to 1 Corinthians 14, an unbeliever or an unlearned person is not convicted by only one person. He is convicted by all. One person speaking is not that convincing or convicting. When we all speak the same thing, this meeting is very convicting. Let us suppose that a newcomer is in the Lord’s Day morning meeting. Perhaps on Saturday this new one had a problem with his boss. He may be upset with the way his boss treats him. He may feel that his boss treats him like a “dog” and that he hates his boss. When he comes into the church meeting with all prophesying, he will be convicted by all and judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be manifested. Perhaps a young brother will stand up and share, “We should not hate anyone.” Then a young sister may say, “Hating people is the pathway to the lake of fire.” An older saint may say, “Throughout my life, I have experienced that hating people really hurts us. The Bible tells us we need to love our neighbors as ourselves.” If many saints in the meeting share on the same subject of loving others, this person certainly will be convicted by all and judged by all. All the saints’ speaking will expose exactly what is in his heart. Someone may even say, “You hate your boss because you feel that he treats you like a dog.” When a new one is at a meeting like this, he will worship God, reporting that God is really among us. God expresses Himself through His prophesying people.
In a church meeting, a young sister may stand up and share how it is so easy for us to lose our temper. She may go on to say that although she loves her mother to the uttermost, she got angry with her. Because of this, she had to repent to the Lord and ask for forgiveness and also ask her mother for forgiveness. A new one who is in the meeting may be a person who easily loses his temper with his mother. When he hears this sharing from this young sister, he will be convicted. Another brother may stand up and say that although we are all sinners, we can be forgiven and regenerated by praying to the Lord Jesus to receive Him by confessing our sins and calling upon His name. This brother may go on to say that when we call upon His name, His Spirit comes into us to regenerate us. Just after these two sharings, this new one may believe and be saved because he was convicted, judged, and exposed. When the church meeting is a meeting of mutuality in which all the saints prophesy, the riches of Christ are exhibited. We have to overthrow the old traditional way of Christianity in which only one man speaks and the rest listen. That practice robs all the saints of their right to speak forth Christ.
Let us suppose that there is a pastor with a congregation of five hundred people. This pastor may be a wonderful speaker. Eventually, however, his congregation will become tired of his speaking. When the newcomers hear him, they will say that his speaking is marvelous, but the older ones in his congregation are used to his speaking. They will become tired and bored of his speaking. For the long run, the practice of one man speaking tires people out. After a period of time, there is no freshness with this person’s speaking; instead, there is staleness. The practice of one man speaking and the rest listening is the man-made way, the natural way, the way according to the customs of human society.
The practice of all prophesying cannot be seen in Christianity. The practice of today’s Christianity is traditional, natural, and according to the customs of society. Regardless of how powerful or capable a speaker is, his speaking cannot be as rich as the speaking of all the saints. The practice of one man speaking and the rest listening has become a custom in Christianity. When only one person speaks in a meeting of the church, the riches of God cannot be exhibited in a full way. In Church Affairs, Brother Nee says that we all need to exercise to push this traditional practice away. If we all push against the way of one man speaking and the rest listening, eventually we will push it away.
According to 1 Corinthians 14, when the church comes together, everybody has an equal opportunity to speak. Because of this, there is a kind of spiritual principle that no one should speak too long in the church meetings. The church in Taipei has entered into the practice of 1 Corinthians 14, and there is an understood principle with them that no one should prophesy longer than three minutes. If we practice this way, at least twenty persons can have an opportunity to speak for the Lord in one hour. When equal opportunity is given to all the saints, the riches of Christ will come out.
The kind of meeting in which one gifted person speaks and the rest of the saints listen may be considered as a ministry meeting. This kind of meeting is also in the Bible, but this is not the church meeting of mutuality that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 14. Acts 20 tells us that Paul stayed in Troas for seven days. On the Lord’s Day, Paul spoke to the saints there until midnight. One young man who was overcome by sleep fell from the third story and was taken up dead. Paul went down to raise that man up, and everyone was happy. After the Lord’s table, Paul continued to talk to them until daybreak. This meeting in Troas was a special meeting in which Paul could fulfill his apostolic function. That meeting was a real conference. I do not think that anyone other than Paul could speak for such a long time. This kind of meeting is different from the regular meetings of the church. In the regular meetings of the church, everyone can function. We do not need to be able to speak like the Apostle Paul or like other gifted brothers. We all can prophesy in a short and living way for the building up of the church, Christ’s organic Body.
If we prophesy without the Spirit and without life, what we say will be altogether inorganic. We may feel to speak only because of our duty and obligation to the charge of the elders. If we only speak to carry out our obligation apart from the Spirit and life, what we speak will be mere doctrine. When we speak, our speaking should be full of the Spirit and life. If all of us speak in such a way in the meetings of the church, everyone will be impressed with the riches of Christ and the presence of God. The speaking of Christ convicts people, judges people, and exposes all the hidden things in their heart. Thus, they have to kneel down to worship God and report that God is really among us. We are God’s speaking people. Whenever we come together, our meeting must be a speaking meeting. It must be a meeting speaking God, speaking for God, speaking forth God, and speaking God into people. This is God’s divine dispensing.
My burden is to speak the truth to God’s children. Today many pastors learn how to be eloquent and even speak words that make people laugh. We are not burdened to speak in this way. We want the words that we speak to be words of spirit and life. As believers, we all have to prophesy. We should not think that it is that difficult to speak for the Lord. We do not need to be specially gifted persons in order to speak Christ. I hope that all of us would take the holy Word from the Bible and put it into practice.
Prophesying is for the building up of the church, which is the organism of the processed Triune God, in the way of life (1 Cor. 14:4-5). When Christ is spoken into us as building up, encouragement, and consolation and when we are convicted and judged to turn to Christ, Christ is gained by us as nourishment. Encouragement and consolation are a nourishment. To be convicted and judged brings us to Christ. Then we receive Christ and gain Christ. Whenever we gain Christ, the Christ gained by us becomes our support, our supply, and our nourishment, and then we grow. Our growth is the building up of the Body of Christ. The Apostle Paul’s speaking is centered on Christ for the building up of His mystical Body to fulfill God’s eternal economy.
Everyone prophesying for the building up of the church as the organic Body of Christ has not been seen in Christianity. Because Christianity has become deformed in relation to the divine revelation, we have to come back to the Scriptures. The Lord desires to recover 1 Corinthians 14. I believe that now is the time, at the end of this age, for the Lord to recover 1 Corinthians 14 among us. The Lord has been preparing us for this recovery for the past sixty-seven years, since 1922. I feel that now is the time and that we are the people to give the Lord a way to recover the truth seen and written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 14.